Live updates: Russia, Ukraine agree to safe corridor

The latest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war:

LONDON — Britain’s defence secretary said Tuesday that there are reports Ukrainian special forces destroyed over 20 Russian helicopters on the ground overnight as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to face logistical problems and fierce resistance.

Russia’s advance toward the capital, Kyiv, continues to face pressure from Ukrainian forces around the nearby towns of Hostomel, Bucha, Vorzel and Irpin, the U.K. Defence Ministry said in an intelligence update released late Monday. In addition, a lengthy Russian column remains stuck on the road north of Kyiv.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Russian forces are becoming more and more desperate in the face of such military and supply holdups, leading to “indiscriminate shelling” of civilians.

“We’ve also recognized that probably the biggest single casualties, so far in the war, are Russian military soldiers who have been let down by appalling leaders, appalling leadership and appalling plans. And now you see them, literally, at large scales dying.”

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WASHINGTON — The World Bank says it has approved more than US$700 in emergency support for Ukraine.

Dubbed FREE Ukraine, it includes nearly $500 million in loans and guarantees and $134 million in grants, with Japan promising another $100 million in financing. The aid is meant to help the Ukrainian government pay wages of hospital workers, pensions and other social programs. Bundling the aid into a package is intended to streamline and speed the provision of the funding, the World Bank said in a statement.

“The World Bank Group stands with the people of Ukraine and the region,” World Bank President David Malpass said. “This is the first of many steps we are taking to help address the far-reaching human and economic impacts of this crisis.”

The World Bank also said it is preparing a $3 billion package of support for Ukraine and the region to help it cope with the flood of displaced people fleeing the fighting.

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TOKYO — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel praised Japan’s latest sanctions on Russia’s oil refining industry and on Belarus Tuesday.

Japan has frozen the assets of Russian and Belarusian officials and banned the new issue and distribution of Russian government bonds, acting in unity with the U.S. and other Group of Seven industrialized nations. Japan is also banning exports of oil-refining equipment to Russia.

“We applaud the Kishida government’s leadership today to target Russia’s oil refining sector with strict export controls,” Emanuel said in a statement.

The moves help restrict Russia’s access to revenue that supports Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine, he said.

“These new actions, implemented in close unity with the United States and other partners, demonstrate Japan’s resolute commitment to stand together with the Ukrainian people and against Putin’s vicious regime,” said Emanuel.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan sent an aircraft to Poland on Tuesday to evacuate more than 300 Pakistanis who escaped fighting in Ukraine.

Pakistan International Airlines says most of them are students.

Pakistan has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even as it has denounced war as a solution to differences and called for negotiations and a ceasefire. Prime Minister Imran Khan met with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin just hours after the Russian leader sent tanks into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Pakistan abstained from last week’s UN General Assembly vote condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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TOKYO — Japanese automaker Nissan is planning to halt production at its plant in Russia because of “logistical challenges.”

Nissan Motor Co. did not provide a specific date but said Tuesday production will stop “soon.” Its plant in St. Petersburg produced 45,000 vehicles last year, including the X-Trail sport utility vehicle.

The Yokohama-based manufacturer said the safety of its employees is its top priority.

Nissan earlier stopped exports to Russia.

LVIV, Ukraine — Russian aircraft bombed cities in eastern and central Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials said. Shelling pounded suburbs of the capital, Kyiv.

In Sumy and Okhtyxjmtzywrka, to the east of Kyiv near the Russian border, bombs fell on residential buildings and destroyed a power plant, regional leader Dmytro Zhivitsky said. He said there were dead and wounded but gave no figures.

Bombs also hit oil depots in Zhytomyr and the neighbouring town of Cherniakhiv, located west of Kyiv.

In Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, the mayor reported heavy artillery fire.

“We can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night,” Mayor Anatol Fedoruk said. “Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare.”

The Ukrainian government is demanding the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow people to safely leave Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Mariupol and suburbs of Kyiv, including Bucha.

LVIV, Ukraine — The mayor of Lviv said the city in far western Ukraine is struggling to feed and house the tens of thousands of people who have fled here from war-torn regions of the country.

“We really need support,” Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.

More than 200,000 Ukrainians displaced from their homes are now in Lviv, filling up sport halls, schools, hospitals and church buildings. The historical city once popular with tourists had a population of 700,000 before the war.

The mayor said the city needs big tents equipped with kitchens so food can be prepared.

Hundreds of thousands more people could arrive if humanitarian corridors are opened up from cities now under siege from Russian troops.

The embassies of the U.S. and EU countries also moved to Lviv from Kyiv before the invasion.

Lviv is the main transit point for those fleeing just across the border to Poland. Many of the 1.7 million Ukrainians now abroad passed through the city. The United Nations has called the situation the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

LVIV, Russia — A Russian general was killed in the fighting around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which Russian forces have been trying to seize since the invasion began, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said.

It identified him as Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov, 45, and said he had fought with Russian forces in Syria and Chechnya and had taken part in the seizure of Crimea in 2014.

It was not possible to confirm the death independently. Russia has not commented.

Another Russian general was killed earlier in the fighting. A local officers’ organization in Russia confirmed the death in Ukraine of Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, the commanding general of the Russian 7th Airborne Division.

Sukhovetsky also took part in Russia’s military campaign in Syria.

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government says it is placing sanctions on Moscow’s “propagandists and purveyors of disinformation” who legitimatize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Tuesday her government was sanctioning 10 “people of strategic interest to Russia” for their role in encouraging hostility toward Ukraine.

“This includes driving and disseminating false narratives about the ‘de-Nazification’ of Ukraine, making erroneous allegations of genocide against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, and promoting the recognition of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic as independent,” Payne said, referring to separatist regions of Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had been accompanied by a widespread disinformation campaign, both within Russia and internationally, she said.

“Tragically for Russia, President (Vladimir) Putin has shut down independent voices and locked everyday Russians into a world characterized by lies and disinformation,” Payne said.

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